DANNY GLOVER
BOARD CHAIR

Actor, producer and humanitarian Danny Glover has been a commanding presence on screen, stage and television for more than 25 years.! As an actor, his film credits range from the blockbuster Lethal Weapon franchise to smaller independent features, some of which Glover also produced.! Most recently, he co-starred in the critically acclaimed feature Dreamgirls directed by Bill Condon and in Po’ Boy’s Game for director Clement Virgo. He appeared in the hit feature Shooter for director Antoine Fuqua and can currently be seen in Honeydripper for director John Sayles and Be Kind, Rewind for director Michel Gondry. Glover has also gained respect for his wide-reaching community activism and philanthropic efforts, with a particular emphasis on advocacy for economic justice, and access to health care and education programs in the United States and Africa.! For these efforts, Glover received a 2006 DGA Honor.! Internationally, Glover has served as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Program from 1998-2004, focusing on issues of poverty, disease, and economic development in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and currently serves as UNICEF Ambassador.

In 2005, Glover co-founded Louverture Films (www.louverturefilms.com) dedicated to the development and production of films of historical relevance, social purpose, commercial value and artistic integrity. The New York based company has a slate of progressive features and documentaries including Trouble the Water, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance FilmFestival, Africa Unite, award winning feature Bamako, and most recent projects Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, and The Disappearance of McKinley Nolan.

A native of San Francisco Glover trained at the Black Actors’ Workshop of the American Conservatory Theater.! It was his Broadway debut in Fugard’s Master Harold...and the Boys, which brought him to national recognition and led director Robert Benton to cast Glover in his first leading role in 1984!s Oscar®- nominated Best Picture Places in the Heart.! The following year, Glover starred in two more Best Picture nominees: Peter Weir’s Witness and Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple.! In 1987, Glover partnered with Mel Gibson in the first Lethal Weapon film and went on to star in three hugely successful Lethal Weapon sequels.! Glover has also invested his talents in more personal projects, including the award-winning To Sleep With Anger, which he executive produced and for which he won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor; Bopha!; Manderlay; Missing in America; and the film version of Athol Fugard’s play Boesman and Lena.! On the small screen, Glover won an Image Award and a Cable ACE Award and earned an Emmy nomination for his performance in the title role of the HBO movie Mandela.! He has also received Emmy nominations for his work in the acclaimed miniseries Lonesome Dove and the telefilm Freedom Song.! As a director, he earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for Showtime’s Just a Dream.

JOHN C. HUGGINS
VICE CHAIR

John C. Huggins counsels corporate clients in connection with Real Estate, Technology, Labor and Employment, and General Corporate matters. His clients include businesses operating in the health care and medical devices, transportation, technology, software, and not-for-profit sectors.

Mr. Huggins has negotiated and completed asset and share purchase and sale transactions, long-term leases, service provider agreements, intellectual property licensing agreements, and product distribution agreements for his clients. In addition, Mr. Huggins has worked very closely with and counseled corporate clients in the area of corporate governance.

Mr. Huggins received his B.B.A. degree in Finance from Howard University in 1987 and his J.D. from the University Of Connecticut School Of Law in 1998. He served as Executive Editor of the Connecticut Insurance Law Journal while in law school and is admitted to practice in Connecticut, Maryland and the District of Columbia.

WILLIE ADAMS

William E. Adams was elected ILWU International Secretary-Treasurer in 2003. Adams moved to Tacoma, Washington in 1978 where he started working at the Port of Tacoma as a casual longshoreman. He gained his B registration into the ILWU Local 23 in 1980 and his A registration in 1986. He worked as a longshoreman for 20 years before transferring to become a marine clerk for four years.

Mr. Adams got involved in the political life of his local in 1998, becoming a member of Local 23's executive board and one of its delegates to the ILWU Longshore Division Caucus. He served in both those positions until 2003. He won a term on the International Executive Board as a representative of the Puget Sound Region in 2000-2003 and also served as a Trustee of the International.

In the Longshore Division, Mr. Adams also chaired the Coast Jurisdiction Committee from 2002-2003 and worked on the Coast Legislative Action Committee from 2000-2003. During his time working in and for the union, Adams also was active in the Tacoma community. He started producing "Celebrations of Black History and Labor" programs in Tacoma in 1991, 1992 and 1993 and restarted the tradition again in 2001, 2002 and 2003, featuring such heroes of African American culture and politics as Paul Robeson, Jr., Yolanda King and Betty Shabazz. He also co-produced a documentary film about the life of African American writer Langston Hughes. For his work in the community he has received Tacoma's City of Destiny Award and the Paul Robeson Peace and Justice Award from Mothers for Police Accountability in Seattle, Washington.

DR. JOHNNETTA COLE

Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole was appointed the Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art (NMAfA) in March, 2009. Founded as a small museum on Capitol Hill in 1964, NMAfA became a part of the Smithsonian Institution in 1979, and in 1987 it moved to its current location on the National Mall. The museum's collection of over 9,000 objects represents nearly every area of the continent of Africa and contains a variety of media and art forms. NMAfA also has an extensive education program. Since the mid-1980's, Dr. Cole has worked with a number of Smithsonian programs. She currently serves on the Scholarly Advisory Board for the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, the construction of which will be completed on the National Mall by 2015.

Before assuming her current position, Johnnetta Cole had a long and distinguished career as an educator and humanitarian. Her work as a college professor and president, her published works, her speeches and her community service consistently address issues of racial, gender, and all other forms of inequality.

Dr. Cole is President Emerita of Bennett College for Women and Spelman College. She is the only individual to have served as the president of these two historically Black colleges for women in the United States. She is also Professor Emerita of Emory University from which she retired as Presidential Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Women's Studies and African American Studies.

After beginning her college studies at Fisk University and completing her undergraduate studies at Oberlin College, Johnnetta Cole earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in anthropology from Northwestern University. Dr. Cole made history in 1987 when she became the first African American woman to serve as president of Spelman College. At her inauguration, Drs. Bill and Camille Cosby donated $20 million dollars to the college; and during her presidency, Spelman was named the number one liberal arts college of the South. During her presidency at Bennett College for Women, an art gallery was opened and programs were initiated in women's studies and global studies.

Dr. Cole has conducted research in Africa, the Caribbean and the United States, and she has authored and edited several books and scores of scholarly articles. She is a fellow of the American Anthropological Association and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also a member of the American Association of Museum Directors. Johnnetta Cole has been awarded 55 honorary degrees and she is the recipient of numerous awards, including the TransAfrica Forum Global Public Service Award, the Radcliffe Medal, the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal, the 2001 Alexis de Tocqueville Award for Community Service from United Way of America, The Joseph Prize for Human Rights presented by the Anti-Defamation League, The Uncommon Height Award from the National Council of Negro Women, The John W. Gardner leadership Award from The Independent Sector, the Lenore and George W. Romney Citizen Volunteer Award from the Points of Light Foundation, Ebony magazines most influential 100 2010, George Washington Carver award 2011 and Benjamin Franklin Creativity Laureate Award.

From 2004 to 2006, Johnnetta Cole was the chair of the board of United Way of America, the first African American to serve in that position. She has served on the corporate boards of Home Depot, Merck, and Nation's Bank South. She was the first woman to serve on the board of Coca-Cola Enterprises.

Dr. Cole currently chairs the board of the National Visionary Leadership Project, she is a member of the board of TransAfrica Forum, founding chair of The Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity and Inclusion Institute, and she is on the Advisory Committee of America's Promise. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, the Links, Inc. and the National Council of Negro Women.

JAMES DAVIS

Dr. James Davis is the longest serving member of the TransAfrica BOD. He is originally from Little Rock, AK but has practiced internal medicine in Washington, DC for over three decades. He was proud to be arrested on two occasions in front of the South African Embassy during the FSAM and acted as Former President Randall Robinson’s personal physician, including time during Mr. Robinson’s hunger strike for Haiti. He has a deep love for baseball, with a special predilection for the St. Louis Cardinals.

ADWOA DUNN-MOUTON

Adwoa Dunn-Mouton is an activist who has been involved with African policy issues for the last thirty years. Dunn-Mouton spent eight years on Capitol Hill, working on the House Subcommittee on Africa under the leadership of Howard Wolpe and as Staff Director of the Senate Subcommittee on African Affairs under the leadership of Senator Paul Simon. During her tenure on Capitol Hill, she was involved in the development of legislative actions that led to increased sanctions against the Apartheid Government of South Africa and an increase in US development assistance to Africa. Prior to her work in Congress, she directed the African Studies and Research Center outreach program at Howard University. Adwoa is currently a partner of Mouton Insurance Brokerage.

She worked as a consultant for several organizations, including the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and Blackside Production Company. She has served on the Boards of Africa Action, Africa Policy Information Center and the Washington Office on Africa. She was a member and officer of the Southern Africa Support Project, a coalition member of the Free South Africa Movement. She received a B.S. and M.A from the University of California Berkeley. She studied at the University of Ghana in Legon in an Educational abroad Program. She was a Fulbright Fellow in Liberia. She has traveled extensively in Africa for the last thirty years.

SYLVIA HILL

Dr. Sylvia Hill is professor of criminal justice at the University of the District of Colombia and part-time faculty member of The Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio. She received her doctorate in education from the University of Oregon in 1971 after having majored in psychology at Howard University.

Dr. Hill’s current research interest focuses on the use of research and community organizing techniques to mobilize communities to work on public safety. In particular, she is interested in developing a geo-spatial neighborhood intervention model to reduce homicide, vehicular theft, and other indices of decaying neighborhoods. While much of her research has been international solidarity work, this urban domestic focus is consistent with her commitment to human rights practices by designing and evaluating intervention programs in Africa and the Diaspora.

In collaboration with Dr. Angelyn Spaulding Flowers in 1999, Dr. Hill was awarded funding from the City Council to create an Institute for Public Safety and Justice to provide training, research, and public service to combat crime. 
Her most recent publications is Anti-Apartheid Solidarity in US African Relations: From The Margins to the Mainstreams (Co-authored with William Minter) in The Long Road to Freedom: International Solidarity, Vol. 1, South Africa Development Education Trust, 2008.

BRUCE RAYNOR

Bruce Raynor is the Chairman of the Board of Amalgamated Life Insurance Company and former President of Workers United, an SEIU affiliated union representing 150,000 workers in the U.S., Puerto Rico and Canada.

Described as a “rising star in the labor movement” (BusinessWeek, April 7, 2003), Raynor has distinguished himself as a creative, aggressive and strategic organizer with a broad understanding of labor’s role in North America. A pioneer in the area of comprehensive campaigns, his career started with the campaign against textile giant J.P. Stevens, made famous by the movie Norma Rae starring Sally Field, to fight against wages as low as $2.65 an hour and even poorer working conditions.

Raynor has handled many key negotiations and has collective bargaining relationships with companies including Levi Strauss & Co., Liz Claiborne, T.J. Maxx/Marshall’s, the Hartmarx Group, Xerox, Delaware North, Hilton, Starwood, and national food service and laundry industry employers such as Aramark, Compass and Sodexo. He has forged productive labor-management relationships in the apparel, textile, hotel, laundry and other industries which have contributed to improved wages and benefits and safer working conditions for working people across North America. Raynor began his career in the education department of the former Textile Workers Union of America (TWUA) in 1973 and went on to organize tens of thousands of workers in the South while based in Atlanta, including nearly 1,000 Lichtenberg Curtain and Drapery workers in Georgia, 500 shirt workers in Crystal Springs, Mississippi, 3,200 Tultex workers in Martinsville, Virginia, and the giant Cannon Mills complex in Kannapolis, North Carolina. He eventually became the elected leader of 50,000 Southern clothing and textile workers.

Using a combination of aggressive rank and file organizing and alliances with civil rights and community leaders to build worker power, Raynor built the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union’s (ACTWU) organizing program throughout the United States and Canada. In 1993, he was elected Executive Vice President of ACTWU. At its founding convention in 1995, he was elected Executive Vice President of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial, and Textile Employees (UNITE). In 1999, he became UNITE’s Secretary-Treasurer and went on to become President in 2001. He was then elected General President of UNITE HERE at the union’s founding convention in July 2004. Upon Worker United’s affiliation with SEIU in 2009, Raynor was elected as an International Executive Vice President of SEIU and currently serves on the SEIU Executive Committee and SEIU Executive Board.

Raynor has been a member of Cornell University’s Board of Trustees since 1988 and currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations. He graduated from Cornell’s ILR School in 1972, and in 1999, he received the ILR School’s Groat Award for Distinguished Alumni.

FRED REDMOND

Elected by acclamation in 2005, Fred Redmond took office as the USW’s International Vice President (Human Affairs) on March 1, 2006.

Fred Redmond joined the Steelworkers union when he went to work at Reynolds Metals Company in McCook, Illinois, in 1973. He became an active member of Local 3911 sen/ing as shop steward, grievance committee member and chairman, vice-president and three terms as president.

ln 1996, Fred was appointed to the International Staff and serviced locals in the Chicago area. ln 1998, he was transferred to the union’s international Headquarters in Pittsburgh, where he developed and conducted training programs for the union’s Membership Development Department. He was also assigned by the Union’s International President to coordinate special projects, including amalgamations and assisting local unions in developing by-laws.

In 2002, he was appointed Assistant Director of USW District 7, where he served until his election as International Vice President (Human Affairs). In addition to his regular union duties, Fred serves as Chairman of the USW Container Industry Conference and coordinates bargaining for the USW Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals and Public Employees Sector.

On May 31, 2007, Fred was elected to the Board of Directors for Working America, a Community Affiliate of the AFL-CIO. On August 3, 2007, he was elected by unanimous assent as chairman of the Board of Directors of the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI). He also serves as the Regional 6 Representative for the Coalition of Black Trade Unionist (CBTU). On March 4, 2008, Fred was elected as a member to the AFL-CIO Executive Council and also serves on several of its committees.